Plagued by both management and maintenance problems, the aging Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system is a disaster waiting to happen and happen it did this morning (15 Nov) at Joo Koon Station.

According to a Facebook post by Mei Anne, she was on one of the train which collided this morning and was injured along with many commuters whom had fallen on their backs in the incident.

The incident was confirmed by the Land Transport Authority and SMRT in a joint statement issued on the same day.

This morning at 8.18am, a train heading in the direction of Tuas Link Station stalled at Joo Koon Station. At 8.19am, a second train stopped behind the first faulty train. At 8.20am, the second train moved forward unexpectedly, and came into contact with the first train.

23 passengers and 2 SMRT staff sustained light to moderate injuries, and have been conveyed to Ng Teng Fong Hospital and National University Hospital. SMRT and LTA are investigating the incident.

Channel NewsAsia reported that 10 people were taken to Ng Teng Fong Hospital and 15 were at NUH.

A spokesman from Ng Teng Fong Hospital said among the 10 injured at the hospital, two were assessed to have sustained injuries under the P2 category or “major emergencies” such as limb fractures and joint dislocation.

Another eight sustained minor injuries and were assessed to be under the P3 category, which includes sprains and minor head injuries.

Meanwhile, SMRT announced that two of its lines, Circle Line (CCL) and East-West Line (EWL) were experiencing delays. CCL is experiencing signaling fault resulting in a huge back-load of passengers while EWL is affected by the train collision at Joo Koon Station. North-South Line is experiencing delays , likely as a result of the service disruption from the other lines.

At about 2pm on the same day, SMRT announced that train service between Boon Lay and Tuas Link stations in both directions will be suspended for two hours.

This is to facilitate the recovery of the two trains involved in this morning’s incident at Joo Koon MRT station. We are doing all we can to restore services safely and expeditiously.

The rail operator added that free regular bus and bridging bus services are available between those two stations.

Will this be another “sad and embarrassing” incident which unfortunately has happened warranting only a cursory mention in Parliament or will a long overdue independent inquiry finally be convened this time round.

Not only trains might break down/collision, you can even get arrested, like this 52 years old man, even though he doesnt look like a terrorist. Must be a shock to this poor man, grew up here since Independence, and never thought he can be arrested so easily without committing any crime.

just toss KBW under the train or tie him to the tracks !
enough is enough.
yet he had the gall to say that companies should part ways with staff who don’t improve after checks and counselling.
the pot calling the kettle black.

Pinky Ah, so the rumour that rats have been chewing the cables coz Saw rented out station space to food joints is true. The “signal fault” and simi lan sai faults almost all happen during and after rain, meaning the cable insulation gone case already.

Still want to build Cross Island Line? Imagine train flooded under central reserve and hundreds of passengers drown. End up with an underground cemetery.

1) Such accidents are common and happen daily everywhere in the world, from Europe to USA. Nothing new here.

2) Compared to the developed cities of New York and London, our MRT still works much better than theirs. Their delays are much worse.

3) Compared to the less developed cities of SEA, we are fortunate. Jakarta, Manila and KL don’t even have MRTs. Bangkok has MRT but its performance is much worse than our MRT.

4) Compared to the outstanding MRTs of Tokyo and Taipei, of course ours isn’t as good. But those are cities in the face of natural disasters, low income growth, inflated property prices and pathetic space.

The bottom line is: As a developed city Singapore is bound to have growing pains with regards to transport. It is better to be where we are right now (high income country with transport problems), than to be where we were in the 1980s (lower income country though with efficient & smooth transport).

If you want CEO salaries, you are responsible for everything under the SMRT. Stand up and be accountable and be responsible. How do these guys face his children…I guess his children has no ethics at all. Like father like son.

1) Such accidents are common and happen daily everywhere in the world, from Europe to USA. Nothing new here.

2) Compared to the developed cities of New York and London, our MRT still works much better than theirs. Their delays are much worse.

3) Compared to the less developed cities of SEA, we are fortunate. Jakarta, Manila and KL don’t even have MRTs. Bangkok has MRT but its performance is much worse than our MRT.

4) Compared to the outstanding MRTs of Tokyo and Taipei, of course ours isn’t as good. But those are cities in the face of natural disasters, low income growth, inflated property prices and pathetic space.

The bottom line is: As a developed city Singapore is bound to have growing pains with regards to transport. It is better to be where we are right now (high income country with transport problems), than to be where we were in the 1980s (lower income country though with efficient & smooth transport).

No need any investigation or explanation, it’s again a very clear cut incident ie a train hit another train.
No need even for any minister to be involved.
Again it’s the fault of 2 black sheeps in SMRT ie the its train driver who stopped the train & the 2nd train driver who did not stop hos train.

These 2 train drivers will get their bonus cut.

So much bonus cuts means the top people will be more then.
Life is fine.

When you at the bottom, you get step on & those at the top will only get fresh air. Life is fair according to PAP meritocracy system.

This morning, after hearing about EWL problem, I decide to catch a cab. Big fuoking mistake. Waited 40 minutes, not a single one is free. Finally took a bus and then change into another bus to get to my destination.

I thought by going in a cab, I would avoid all the bus queues. But it was ok.

I NEED TO GET COMFORTABLE AND TRY OUT GRAB. I really don’t like getting into a stranger’s car. But the taxis all so damn yaya today. Fouk them. I hope all the taxi drivers suffer.

We need to TOTALLY OVERHAUL OUR TRAINS AND THE ENTIRE SYSTEM. Please stop building so many shitty HDB and focus instead in our TRANSPORTATION, OK? Fuok!!!

1) Such accidents are common and happen daily everywhere in the world, from Europe to USA. Nothing new here.

2) Compared to the developed cities of New York and London, our MRT still works much better than theirs. Their delays are much worse.

3) Compared to the less developed cities of SEA, we are fortunate. Jakarta, Manila and KL don’t even have MRTs. Bangkok has MRT but its performance is much worse than our MRT.

4) Compared to the outstanding MRTs of Tokyo and Taipei, of course ours isn’t as good. But those are cities in the face of natural disasters, low income growth, inflated property prices and pathetic space.

The bottom line is: As a developed city Singapore is bound to have growing pains with regards to transport. It is better to be where we are right now (high income country with transport problems), than to be where we were in the 1980s (lower income country though with efficient & smooth transport).

Well, since you want to compare, would you care to share and compare the relative salaries of the various heads of the systems you mentioned?

Objectively, can you give us a real ROI number for each of these chiefs?
Having done that, would you conclude that the worst performing ones would not be deserving of their pay?

No more excuses please, just go. You shamelessly ask WP to harakiri, we are kind to you, we don’t ask you to harakiri, we ask you to resign and stop giving excuses. Karma is catching up with you. It will happen to you if you don’t go. Don’t forget to bring your useless CEO along. Both of you have disgrace singaporean. If LKY is around, you 2 are gone long ago.

1st, we hope private practice lawyers can help those injured claim compensation. like any accident that caused injury, there must be fair compensation.

2nd, while those injured are in hospitals, we hope private practice lawyers can help them get the Class A wards they are entitled to. because smrt has this duty to the injured.

3rd, there must be COI. cannot just parleement declare ownself innocent. cannot. ownself check ownself cannot apply anymore as there are injuries.

from high up and higher up to hishest up all play the blame game. they blame the workers. BUT ffff. the workers are hired by who? the workers if not up to the mark are retained by who?

ultimately, isn’t it the responsibility of the highest up to hara-kiri, the higher up to resign, and the high up to bow, all in line of accountability and responsibility?

all the ffff S$m paid year in year out have led to a bunch of blame bodies. S$8 cow blames all lower ones, but as the highest he must lead by example. he must hara-kiri.

pap paper general dismal quack after 5 ffffin long years must own up. as the higher up, he must resign. his next direct report, being the high up, must bow to the injured, and prostrate to the seriously injured.

THEY are paid S$m year in year out. SO they must be responsible. S$ cow hara-kiri. dismal quack resign. the rest bow, and prostrate.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
pap says ownself check ownself. check until so many injured. imagine if WP is the culprit. 80+ LJs and CBs already Facebook comments long long strong strong. BUT because it is pap fault, not a sound not a fury.

Every time Khaw opens his mouth and says something
highly debatable about the MRT system, trains break
down. When will these people get the message????
Forgot, they’re slow learners. VERY slow learners.
And they Dare raise fares!!

All this Screams for a proper, detailed investigation
into this joke we claim is an efficient train system.

Expect things to get worse, MUCH worse, when the cap
on COEs starts (the one which won’t see COE prices go
up, but which saw them immediately jump 11%), and the
govt pushes harder for car lite.
Their timing is unbelieveable. Even while they struggle
with the current overloaded public transport system,
they work to overload it even more. Stupidity does
not even begin to describe these absurd decisions.

How did these people be put in charge? WHY are these
people still in charge? How on earth did they even get
their degrees?!?

One punishment is for all senior people in transport
be required to take Only public transport. We might
see some results after that!!

1) Such accidents are common and happen daily everywhere in the world, from Europe to USA. Nothing new here.

2) Compared to the developed cities of New York and London, our MRT still works much better than theirs. Their delays are much worse.

3) Compared to the less developed cities of SEA, we are fortunate. Jakarta, Manila and KL don’t even have MRTs. Bangkok has MRT but its performance is much worse than our MRT.

4) Compared to the outstanding MRTs of Tokyo and Taipei, of course ours isn’t as good. But those are cities in the face of natural disasters, low income growth, inflated property prices and pathetic space.

The bottom line is: As a developed city Singapore is bound to have growing pains with regards to transport. It is better to be where we are right now (high income country with transport problems), than to be where we were in the 1980s (lower income country though with efficient & smooth transport).

Biggest question is why TRE LOVES to support idiotic scumbag posts like these and CI?

TRE, as usual, do what u do best-CENSOR anti-pappy and gahmen posts like my post. Zzzzzz

Issues or problems could be anything from wear and tear of ageing equipments, faulty equipments, poor maintenance schedules, inferior quality and structural equipments, incompetencies in some crucial key positions, poor morale and lackadaisical work attitude of individual workers entrusted with important job functions and the list goes on.
Now is the time for the top management team to get out of their aircon offices and run around aboveground and underground and monitor every singular bit of the operational aspects of the entire train system. They must master what they have been entrusted to look after.
The top management team has no choice, they must be included from now on, turn by turn, to follow a regular check team of inspectors assigned to vigorously monitor all aspects of the train operation.
It is time for management to roll up their sleeves and get greased and get really tough.
Any individual, section or team that do not perform or commit serious mistakes due to sheer disinterest or negligence, sack them.
No room for the soft approach.
As quickly as possible, difficult though it may be especially for technical expertise, quickly get a new replacement team on board.
Just watch and see how tough action like this will flush out those irresponsible ones, identify them and show them
the exit door.
We must not take a chance with our train system that carry the bulk of our people that depend on it for their day to day activities and how it affects the economy of our country.
Pay the SMRT staff well and ensure that they get the best of training.
The chieftains must make frequent unscheduled and unannounced visits to the nooks and corners of the network.
That ought to shake and shape up the entire network and system for the better.

1) Such accidents are common and happen daily everywhere in the world, from Europe to USA. Nothing new here.

Not true.

Such are the typical spin and lies of the PAP and the IB’s employed by the PAP but paid for by the tax payers.

I have lived in a Western country city for 30 years and I cannot recall having read or heard about an accident involving an underground train. And their underground train system is much older and their underground network far more extensive than that of Singapore.

1) Such accidents are common and happen daily everywhere in the world, from Europe to USA. Nothing new here.

2) Compared to the developed cities of New York and London, our MRT still works much better than theirs. Their delays are much worse.

3) Compared to the less developed cities of SEA, we are fortunate. Jakarta, Manila and KL don’t even have MRTs. Bangkok has MRT but its performance is much worse than our MRT.

4) Compared to the outstanding MRTs of Tokyo and Taipei, of course ours isn’t as good. But those are cities in the face of natural disasters, low income growth, inflated property prices and pathetic space.

The bottom line is: As a developed city Singapore is bound to have growing pains with regards to transport. It is better to be where we are right now (high income country with transport problems), than to be where we were in the 1980s (lower income country though with efficient & smooth transport).

One has to wonder how much are these Internet Brigade shills being paid to sway the opinions of posters.

As long as we have a team of engineers who are on call at all times, and willing to get their hands dirty, and have constant maintenance and sufficient spare parts, old systems like New York Subway up to about a few years ago can run like new.

When you run the company, it is your job and responsibility to ensure that commuters will not be inconvenienced or delayed or suffer physically or economically as a result of delays or breakdowns. How many breakdowns have been happening each month?

And the frequency of breakdowns happened with only 5 lines operating, compared to other cities elsewhere with 20, 50 or 50 lines? And only a few kilometers of track, compared to hundreds or thousands of km in other cities?

When you run the company, it is your job and responsibility to ensure that train accidents do not happen. But it happened. Many injured. No fatal casualties this time, but there were fatal casualties last time.

When you run the company, it is your job and responsibility to ensure tunnel safety. Were passengers nearly electrocuted in the Bishan-Bradell tunnel flooding?

When you run the company, it is your job and responsibility to ensure that comfort of the commuters. How many sweaty armpits do we have to put up with in overly packed wagons? Due to inadequate frequencies of trains?

1) Such accidents are common and happen daily everywhere in the world, from Europe to USA. Nothing new here.

2) Compared to the developed cities of New York and London, our MRT still works much better than theirs. Their delays are much worse.

3) Compared to the less developed cities of SEA, we are fortunate. Jakarta, Manila and KL don’t even have MRTs. Bangkok has MRT but its performance is much worse than our MRT.

4) Compared to the outstanding MRTs of Tokyo and Taipei, of course ours isn’t as good. But those are cities in the face of natural disasters, low income growth, inflated property prices and pathetic space.

The bottom line is: As a developed city Singapore is bound to have growing pains with regards to transport. It is better to be where we are right now (high income country with transport problems), than to be where we were in the 1980s (lower income country though with efficient & smooth transport).

In Singapore we cannot do away with Mr. Khaw, he is a pillar that supports the government. The Pm needs him to deal with the WP so that they would not be a threat to the PAP. No incident can really shake his position. He is safe because the Pm does not want to lose him.

Despite natural disasters, low income growth, inflated property prices and pathetic space, Tokyo and Taipei MRTs still outstanding than us? Singapore has none of these disasters and still so cockup? What does that say about Singapore?
I’ve got nothing against an IB except one who don’t know what he’s talking about.

4) Compared to the outstanding MRTs of Tokyo and Taipei, of course ours isn’t as good. But those are cities in the face of natural disasters, low income growth, inflated property prices and pathetic space.

The bottom line is: As a developed city Singapore is bound to have growing pains with regards to transport. It is better to be where we are right now (high income country with transport problems), than to be where we were in the 1980s (lower income country though with efficient & smooth transport).

Watch the Netflix show call designated survivor . There was a scene wheee the president, a person who is recognised as good heart, good man and has strong integrity wanted to Go with his decision to carry out an air strike on America soil on a terrorist to save America. However this was opposed by congress who is against setting precedence and when his advisor asked why permission was not granted as president has good heart and all good intends, the congress women replied saying by giving the president the power to do this time, they are setting a bad precedent for future president and what is to prevent president who is rogue to act on his free will .
In Singapore we took a lot of short cuts in early days by granting free will to a lot of things government can or do. While we get a lot of speed in execution, it relies on the team who is capable and effective in their execution. Our pioneer even turn a blind eye to some of the suing against opponent as they think that given this trust, government has a good heart and has the resolve to solve other areas of issues with.
what is our insurance now that precedence is set and mechanism available

Eg
-to go after oppponents in Parliment
-shut up and move on
- people on TOP deserve Super high pay, aristcracts and superiority feeling

As a result we bred a lot of copy cat Politicians who use tactics of our founding Father but deliver peanuts to us .

@ Hopeless. Hacken et al (including others):
The Guy trying very hard to earn his S$1 per comment from the Ministry of Information and Communications, under Minister Yaacob Ibrahim.
Read of the PAP Internet Brigade below:
Link: https://STR.com/2017/11/07/pap-grassroots-leader-confirms-existence-of-internet-brigade/
Proof that he is a Good-for-Nothing IB & really, really ignorant:
1. KL has got a MRT system – I’ve used it. Can’t really speak for Jakarta & Manila because I was driven around using limousines & private transport when I was there on business.
2. London Underground & NYC Metro have alternate track mechanism which can bypass afflicted lines or stations; & allow for routine maintenance work ie. built-in redundancies to avoid bottleneck something which S’pore’s MRT doesn’t have. S’pore have only a 2 track system (a bottleneck situation) without any alternate track or a bypassing track ie. no redundancy resulting in total breakdown & train schedule chaos.
3. Japan’s electrified mass transit rail system is the best in the world. Trains arrived on the dot! Their train time schedule are posted at every station. Their Shinkansen system (ie. Bullet trains) are awesome but expensive – yet they are even better than taking the airplane.
4. Taipei rail fares are very, very cheap compared to S’pore. And the system is fairly reliable – can’t speak of S’pore reliability!
5. Shopped at both Tokyo & Taipei – prices are much lower than S’pore’s & range of products very broad compared to S’pore. Japan has had price deflation for some years now while Taipei got lots of night markets & street stalls (can bargain like crazy!) – S’pore, on the other hand, has rent seekers, very high rents, glitzy malls with very high fixed prices, profiteering [Baby Milk Formula] & cartel pricing [Telcos, Big Electronic chains, Supermarkets, etc]. If you’ve been to Japan & Taiwan, S’pore shopping is 3rd rate in terms of prices & merchandise.

For over a century, trains were kept safe by a “fixed block” system. The track was divided into blocks, and a mechanical signal system told the driver to stop the train before it could enter a block already occupied. This solution is simple, safe, and can be made almost totally reliable.

That was then; this is now. One train operator after another has tried a “moving block” system. One operator after another has discvovered that this cannot be made reliable, and sooner or later kills people.

The reason is that these “blocks” do not really exist: they are an imaginary “virtual space” that surrounds the train. For this space to remain safe, the train must continually measure its own position, velocity and acceletration, *and the same for the train ahead and the train behind*, and do this continuously in real time. This is a very complex problem, and nobody has solved it accurately, reliably, and maintainably.

And this the the system SMRT has just activated at Joo Koon. The detail in the event is a dead giveaway: how could one train possible get so close to another in the first place? With a “fixed block” system, that simply cannot happen.

There is only ne safe path: abandon the “moving block” system, and revert to the older, reliable one. To do otherwise is simply hubris, and hubris is always followed by Nemesis.

I would suggest maybe the authority can come out a new form of lottery to predict the trains breaking down. This way the people can bet, win money and definitely SMRT will work even harder to prevent the trains from breaking down as they will need to compensate the lottery money back to the people if they never fix the trains ASAP hahah

This is now the new Singapore Way. A laughing stock of one debacle after another over 7 years, followed by one ridiculous explanation after another by the Government that it is nobody’s fault, a series of high profile disciplinary action against rank and file SMRT workers, the Tpt Minister saying the SMRT glass is 3/4 empty, etc.

And the best part is this – after all this, still no responsibility to top management (current and previous).

What kind of logic is this? The new Singapore Way must be senior folks wearing teflon armour.

1) Regional express trains (making stops at some but not all MRT stations) – using larger, faster and wider trains.
2) MRT system that is better maintained and regularly upgraded
3) Completely new LRT system on extended lines, with new tracks and new trains.
4) New super trams that stop at MRT stations and new tram stops.
5) New all electric buses that follow electric guide-ways on expressways and major roads, not stopping at all bus-stops.
6) System of moving walkways and moving pavements to relief pressure on the above.
7) Last mile transport solutions – getting residents to their door step from the MRT station or bus stop, e.g. by shuttle van or car pooling or even electric trishaw.

The idea is – if one of these breaks down, at least part of the journey can still be done with the other systems.

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